New International, August 1934

The Pact

APPROVED on July 27, 1934 by the delegates of the Permanent Administrative Commission of the Socialist Party and by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party on the other, the agreement for the united front of the two French parties reads as follows:

Yesterday, at the Maison des Cooperateurs, there met the delegates of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Permanent Administrative Commission of the Socialist Party are animated by the will to beat Fascism.

It is clear that this goal can be attained only by the common action of the toiling masses for clearcut objectives of struggle. The interests of the working class therefore demand that the Socialist Party and the Communist Party organize this common action against Fascism.

In face of the danger which Fascism represents to the toiling population, attacks organized by armed bands against the proletariat, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party recognize the necessity of conducting the resolute action by common agreement and hereby specify its modalities and conditions:

I. The Socialist Party and the Communist Party sign a pact of unity of action by which they engage themselves to organize in common and to participate with all their means (organizations, press, militants, elected representatives, etc.) in a campaign throughout the land, having as its aim:

To mobilize the whole toiling population against the Fascist organizations, for their disarmament and their dissolution;

For the defense of the democratic liberties, for proportional representation and the dissolution of the Chamber;

Against the preparations for war;

Against the decree-laws;

Against the Fascist terror in Germany and in Austria, for the liberation of Thälmann and of Karl Seitz, and of all the imprisoned anti-Fascists.

II. This campaign shall be conducted by means of joint meetings in the greatest possible number of localities and enterprises, by means of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations of the masses in the street, by insuring the self-defense of workers’ gatherings, of demonstrations, of organizations and of their militants; and by being always watchful that the psychological, material and moral conditions for investing them with the maximum scope and power shall be brought together.

If, in the course of this common action, members of the one or the other party come to blows with Fascist adversaries, the adherents of the other party shall lend them aid and assistance.

III. During the course of this common action, the two parties shall abstain reciprocally from attacks and criticisms upon the organisms and militants participating loyally in the action.

However, outside of the common action, each party shall retain its complete independence in order to develop its propaganda, without insulting or abusing the other party, and in order to assure its own recruitment.

As to the joint demonstrations of action, they must be dedicated exclusively to the common object and not be transformed into contradictory debates touching upon the doctrine and the tactic of the two parties.

IV. Each party engages itself to curb the defalcations and omissions that might take place within the ranks of its own organizations with reference to the common action engaged in.

A committee of coordination composed of seven delegates from each of the two parties is constituted to settle upon the plan in its entirety and the character of the joint demonstrations. This committee shall have laid before it the disputes and conflicts which may arise. The decisions of this committee shall be recorded in minutes of proceedings, jointly edited and brought to the attention of the workers.